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larger company of Mormon emigrants for the overland journey to Utah. It took these first Danish emigrants
nine months to reach Salt Lake City; thousands who followed took much the same route. New Orleans was the
American port of entry until New York and other eastern ports supplanted it in 1855. A few companies sailed
directly from Hamburg to America.
Scandinavian converts traveled together, often as part of larger companies including British LDS emigrants,
on ships chartered by Mormon agents. After travel by rail or river steamboat, immigrants reached a frontier
outfitting post where arrangements were made for their final overland trek to Utah. Beginning in 1869 steam
powered the entire journey to Utah, by ship and by rail.
The peak of Danish emigration to Utah came in the years 1862 and 1863, when tensions in Europe were
reaching a boiling point over Denmark's attempted annexation of Schleswig, and while the Civil War raged in
the United States. In those two years alone nearly 2,000 Mormons emigrated from Denmark, the vast majority
destined for Utah. Some, subject to military service, were leaving to avoid becoming cannon fodder in
Denmark's armed conflict that would soon break out with Prussia and Austria.
The heaviest Danish Mormon immigration came during the first formative quarter-century of the Latter-day
Saint settlement of Utah. No exclusively Danish communities were established, although the village of
Mantua in Box Elder County was predominantly Danish in its earliest years. Danes played particularly
significant roles in the settlement of Box Elder and Cache counties in the north and of Sanpete and Sevier
counties in the south. Sanpete County's Danish-born residents made up twenty-four percent of its population
in 1870; with their children born in Utah they were undoubtedly more than one-third of the county's
population. One-third of all the Danes in Utah were located in Sanpete County. Droll Danish humor became
part of popular Sanpete folklore. Also in 1870, 10.5 percent of Box Elder County's residents were born in
Denmark, as were 7.8 percent of Cache County's residents. Although emigration from Denmark to Utah
declined after the 1860s, still 10 percent of the state's population in 1890 either were born in Denmark or had at
least one parent born in Denmark. Mormon leaders consistently encouraged assimilation, and many Danish
converts began to learn English before emigrating. After reaching Utah, wherever possible, they were asked to
participate fully in the activities of local Mormon English-speaking wards (congregations). Still, LDS
"Scandinavian Meetings" organizations served as a secondary focal point for religious, social, and cultural
activities in the mother tongue. Scandinavians joined forces for outings and reunions, choirs, and dramatic
productions. Partly because of the central place the Scandinavian LDS Meetings held among the immigrant
community, such organizations as Dansk Broderskab (Danish Brotherhood) enjoyed only limited participation
in Utah.
Periodicals in their native language served combined audiences of Danes and Norwegians, and sometimes
Swedes as well. The most successful of these was the Danish-Norwegian newspaper Bikuben (The Beehive),
published in Salt Lake City from 1876 through 1935 (under LDS Church ownership in later years).
Whether disaffected or in search of economic opportunities, some Danish LDS immigrants originally bound
for Utah left their traveling companies in the Midwest, or returned there after experiencing Utah. Many of
these were among early settlers of Iowa and Nebraska. After a sojourn in Utah and Idaho in the 1860s, Jens
(later James) Borglum and his family settled down in Nebraska, where he became a physician. His son Solon,
born in Ogden, became a prominent sculptor, as did son Gutzon, born in southern Idaho, who later created the
massive monumental sculpture at Mount Rushmore.
After the coming of the railroad to Utah in 1869 Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and Lutherans
established churches and schools in Utah aimed specifically at reclaiming Scandinavians from Mormonism.
This became a significant factor in the education of many Danish-American youth and won a limited number
of proselytes.
The majority of early Danish immigrants to Utah came from agricultural backgrounds. Among the remainder,
artisans outnumbered unskilled laborers. While some had been prosperous and the majority were able to at
least pay for the ocean voyage to America, most were relatively poor by the time they reached Utah. Several
devoted much of their means to help with the expenses of fellow immigrants.